Sunday, May 17, 2009

Going Green - from a Peace Corps blogger

Steph Does The Peace Corps - Eastern Caribbean

Wednesday, April 29, 2009Going GreenApparently the world has finally begun to go green. As my best friend put it, "Crazy Obama is really getting shit done! Going green is freakin' everywhere, every company." Thanks Court. I wasn't sure what was happening back in the U.S. since my absence (not true, actually I'm obsessed with checking CNN.com headlines) but still, that's good news to hear. I decided that I needed to do my part to help the world go green, so I organized a beach clean up in my village. I'm not sure why, but the kids in my community LOVE beach clean ups. I made announcements in all of the classes at the primary school where I work and you should have seen these kids. Their eyes lit up like I had just told them they were getting free ice cream or something. But no, they were excited to pick up wet garbage. Good stuff. All of the art classes I taught last week centered around the earth and not-littering in preparation for the big day. These kids are some of the biggest offenders of littering that I have ever witnessed. In hindsight, a "schoolyard clean up" wouldn't have been a bad idea. The idea that the litter was killing the fish in the sea though really seemed to get through to them though. Fish is the staple of almost every one's diet here so it was easy for them to make the connection. After school on Earth Day, Wednesday April 22nd, we hit the beach armed with trash bags. So many children showed up, close to 50, that we were able to clean most of the beach in an hour! After the clean up chaos ensued as the kids started taking their clothes off and jumping in the clean sea. They worked hard, they deserved. Happy Earth Day.